32 Years Under Golden Arches

SATURDAY SPECIAL - First jobs, great experiences

October 9, 1999|By Barry C. Kish, Special to The Sentinel

When I was 17, my best friends worked at McDonald's. I was getting tired of delivering newspapers at 6 a.m. every day. One day, after school, I went to the McDonald's in Oxon Hill, Md., right outside of Washington, D.C., and spoke with the assistant manager. I told him that I was a friend of Charlie and George and that I would like to get a job.

It was May 10, 1965. I filled out an application, and the next day I got my health certificate. Promptly at 5 o'clock on May 12, I started my first real, paying job. I was going to make $1 an hour.

The assistant manager, Bruce, who was in the Navy and working part-time, showed me around. He had one more month to go in the Navy, and then he was going to work full time at McDonald's. He showed me how to put ketchup, mustard and pickles on the toasted buns. I did this for a few hours.

Later that day, the closers showed me how to clean up after we closed the restaurant. McDonald's was very compact in those days. It was a red-and-white-tile building with golden arches across its top. There was no dining area, and the front counter opened directly to the outside.

The next day I helped the manager wrap sandwiches for the counter people to sell.

The third day, and for three months afterward, I worked french fries. Back then, we started with 100-pound sacks of Idaho potatoes. You had to carry them up from the basement. We used from 400 pounds to 1,000 pounds every night. And every night it was my job to peel, slice, wash (and wash and wash) and then blanche all those potatoes. After they cooled down, you could fry them to make the finished product.

I was in 11th-grade, and I was working 60 hours a week in the summer. I worked six days a week and hung around McDonald's on the seventh. During the school year, I mainly worked weekends. I went off to college and only worked holidays. It seemed as if college wasn't for me, and I left after a year. I enlisted in the Army but was rejected because of high blood pressure. My family doctor couldn't detect the high blood pressure, but the Army had found it. After that, I decided to make McDonald's a full-time job.

I took management training for a month and then became a second-assistant manager, making $100 per week. Before that, I was a crew person, making $2.10 an hour, working 60 hours a week. You can do the math. I saw the future.

In time, I became first assistant, then manager, supervisor, training consultant, franchise consultant, operations manager and a host of many other titles. I traveled to South America and Central America. I lived in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

At the ripe, old age of 50, I was given the opportunity to retire. McDonald's had been very good to me during my 32 years with it. I had invested in McDonald's stock, received stock options and had profit-sharing that was all in McDonald's stock, too. I felt that it was time to enjoy my family as much as I enjoyed my first job.

My story could be told by many of my friends at McDonald's. That guy Bruce I mentioned earlier?

He later became the executive vice president for McDonald's Latin America. He retired, too.